Philharmonia/Parry

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Richard Rodney Bennett is celebrating his 70th birthday, and on Thursday it turned into a right royal occasion. The composer who, in his prolific lifetime, has turned his hand to everything from avant-garde serialism to jazz to music for Murder on the Orient Express had been commissioned by the Prince of Wales to write a piece in memory of the Queen Mother. Bennett was, alas, confined to bed with flu for the world premiere; but the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall were there.

Reflections on a Scottish Folk Song for cello and string orchestra is a 30-minute fantasy on